Cisco Sues Apple For 'iPhone' Trademark Infringement

Cisco and Apple's battle over the "iPhone" trademark just became a more heated. On Wednesday, Cisco announced it had formally filed a lawsuit against the Cupertino company for using the iPhone moniker before the two companies could reach an agreement on branding.

Cisco and Apple's battle over the "iPhone" trademark just became more heated. On Wednesday, Cisco announced it had formally filed a lawsuit against the Cupertino company for using the iPhone moniker before the two companies could reach an agreement on branding.

"This lawsuit is about Cisco's obligation to protect its trademark in the face of a willful violation," said Mark Chandler, Cisco's senior vice president in a statement released by the company Wednesday.

"Our goal was collaboration. The action we have taken today is about not using people's property without permission."

While both companies have been in "serious discussions" over the past few weeks about how they could possibly share the iPhone trademark, for now Apple appears to be going ahead with its branding scheme sans an official go ahead from Cisco.

"We genuinely believed that we were going to be able to reach an agreement and Apple's communications with us suggested they supported that goal," Chandler said yesterday. "We negotiated in good faith with every intention to reach a reasonable agreement with Apple by which we would share the iPhone brand."

Chandler reiterated in his statement that the lawsuit has nothing to do with Apple's innovations--or money and royalties.

"This is a suit about trademark infringement," he said.

As previously reported, Cisco has owned the iPhone trademark since 2000, when the company acquired Infogear Technology and its iPhone product.

" Before iMacs and iPods were even glimmers in Apple's eye, we shipped and/or supported that iPhone product for years," Chandler said.

"We have been shipping new, updated iPhone products since last spring, and had a formal launch late last year. Apple knows this; they approached us about the iPhone trademark as far back as 2001, and have approached us several times over the past year."

Chandler says he was "surprised and disappointed" by Apple's decision to announce their new device with Cisco's trademarked name before reaching an official agreement.